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Speech Problems From Brain or Nervous System Damage

Topic Overview

Speech is an important function of the main area of the brain. Three
common speech problems that may be caused by damage to the brain or nervous
system are:

Aphasia, which is the loss
of the ability to understand, process, or express language. Nonfluent or
expressive aphasia is the loss of the ability to express thoughts in speech or
writing. Fluent or receptive aphasia is the loss of the ability to understand
spoken or written speech. The most common cause of aphasia is a
stroke.

Dysphonia, which is a speech disorder that gives a hoarse
quality to the voice. It can be caused by an injury to the nerve that affects
the voice box (larynx) or a tumor in the brain stem. It also has other possible
causes that are not related to nervous system problems.

Dysarthria,
which is a problem with pronunciation and the rhythm of speech. A person with
this problem may seem to stumble over words. This symptom may be caused by a
degenerative disease, such as parkinsonism or
myasthenia gravis.

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